Letter to the editor: ‘Trickle-down’ economics benefits those at the top

Our kind has a long history of things – whether religious, political or socioeconomic – that have successfully helped the ruling few at the expense of the ruled-over many. And here it comes at us once more with the born-again “road to prosperity” ideological delusions of the governors who govern from the extreme right.

Those who prosper the most from this ideological “road to nowhere” proposed by our governor are the sole beneﬁciaries of this misplaced faith in “trickle-down” economics.

Throughout our history, whether as a people or a nation, general socioeconomic beneﬁt has come from what is the greatest good for the greatest number – an approach that focuses primarily on “bubble-up” economics.

It is not that there is nothing good at all from “trickle-down” – just that the trickle has never gone down far enough to build the general economy. Look at its history of boom and bust, with those at the base of the socioeconomic pyramid suffering the most by far. This is exactly what brought on the Great Depression and the Great Recession.

For all-around socioeconomic beneﬁts to accrue, it takes a pragmatic socioeconomic system that involves a judicious combination of “bubble-up” with “trickle-down.”

The one-sided ideological approach recently proposed in Maine, centered on “trickle-down” economics, is not working anywhere. All the wealth accrual has gone to the top 1 percent, and has been spent more on gambling at the Wall Street casino than in ways that have actually done anything to beneﬁt Main Street USA.

Ensuring all-around socioeconomic benefits can best be done by increasing the purchasing power of those who work for wages. This increase in purchasing power cannot be adequately accomplished with mere tax relief, and for most of Maine’s populace, it certainly cannot be done by increasing sales and property taxes.

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